The Real Nightmare
by AnamariaJovel
Summary: [Set in 2012]: Set after Annihilation: Earth! When everything you've ever known and loved is gone, how can you ever begin to cope, to sleep, to dream. How can you move on, where there is nothing to move on to...


They couldn't help it. The nightmares, or in truth the _memories_ , kept haunting their sleep. All of them. The last human. The last mutant-human. The last mutant turtles. Casey. April. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

They had no home to return to. No family. Nothing. And they would forever blame themselves for being too late. For not stopping the Shredder.

Oroku Saki was too angry. He was willing to give up the world to finally exact his revenge on Hamato Yoshi, to finally have the last word, to finally wipe away the stain on his honor.

And the turtles, along with their friends, could not stop him from finishing what was started over fifteen years in the past.

Shredder had finally done it. He had taken everything from Splinter. Tang Shen. Miwa. Karai. And even Splinter's life.

And the turtles, along with their friends, could only see the moment happen over and over.

It shouldn't have ended this way. But unlike the re-winded tape of Crognarg, they could not re-wind time. As far as they knew, Renet was back in her own time, and no longer able to pass through other times causing interferences.

She had said the turtles would save the earth. How could she be so wrong?

"Leo?" Mikey whispered in the darkness, crawling closer to his half-asleep older brother.

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"Can I sleep with you?"

"Sure Mikey," He frowns, knowing the reason why his littlest brother could not sleep. It was the same reason he stayed up most of the night nowadays.

He felt his brother snuggle up against his side, and gently placed an arm under Mikey's head, for a pillow. A few minutes later he heard light snoring, Mikey was asleep. A miracle after all they had been through.

He was close to getting a moment of shut-eye himself when Mikey spoke again.

"Leo?"

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"I miss Master Splinter," Mikey whimpered, glancing around to make sure no one else had heard. Leo felt the tear tickle his plastron before he could see it.

"I do too, Mikey. We all do,"

"It wasn't your fault Leo." Mikey said suddenly, his eyes wide as he looked up at his brother.

"I-" Leo paused, unsure of what to say. He had tried hard to keep his emotions hidden from his brothers. He wanted to be their strength. He had failed Master Splinter, his father. But he refused to fail his brothers.

"I saw you crying earlier…" Mikey whispered again, leaning his head against Leo's shoulder.

"Mikey,"

"It's ok…" Mikey continues, this time comforting Leo.

"I'm sorry…I should've gotten to him…He would still be here," Leo mumbled, starting to tear up as he pictured it happening, for the twentieth time in the last half an hour. The Tekkō-kagi connecting with Splinter's back, piercing his skin and protruding out from his stomach. Their father, falling forward, his eyes so wide, until finally they close, and he takes his last breath, in the arms of his sons…

"You couldn't have stopped Shredder. None of us could…" Mikey trailed off, holding onto his older brother.

For another hour the both of them stayed this way, until they managed to drift off to a restless sleep.

It wasn't much better for the others.

Raph slept alone, refusing to let his brothers comfort him. Refusing to let anyone say it out loud, that Splinter was dead, and there was no getting him back. Not like the last time.

April and Casey slept hand in hand, both of them afraid to wake up to find the other gone. Like all of the other people of earth. Like their families.

Donnie lay next to April, her head on his shoulder. Most of the time however, he did not sleep, only closed his eyes, because if he slept he could no longer control his emotions or his dreams. He was the only one of the turtles that did not sleep a minute. He would 'wake up' bright and early pretending to be hard at work with The Professor, using different excuses for his distractedness, and his puffy red eyes. April could see right through him, but she knew better than to ask him about it, to rehash the things she knew he was afraid to remember.

That was just it, none of them wished to remember. But it seemed that on the small ship, it was all they could do. They filled silences with the memory, they ate with the memory, they slept with the memory. There was just no escaping.

And the reason was because it was all _real_.

A real nightmare.

A worst fear, come true…


End file.
